Chamber concert for a good start to the season

For the opening of the official concert season at the Palau de la Música, the institution has opted not for a large-scale session (in other words, with a large orchestra) but for an intimate chamber music evening, led by three absolute aces of undisputed first-class talent: two veterans, the German violinist Anne-Sophi Bronfman and the young Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández.

The program was structured in two ambitious parts: the Trio 'Archduke' (op. 97) of Beethoven and the Piano Trio in A minor (op. 50) by Tchaikovsky. And it must be said that neither piece seemed to have been performed by the team itself. And if the Beethovenian trio seemed to possess immaculate technique in the attacks, phrasing, and dialogue between violin and cello, it seemed to ignore the presence of a piano, which was reduced to a mere accompaniment. Things improved in the chewed-up phrasing of theandante cantabile, but the feeling of superficiality hovered over the end of the first half.

The second, however, was something else. The elegiac pathos of the beginning of the elegiac piezo It seemed like a declaration of principles: the card of the romantic subjectivity of a musician (Tchaikovsky) devastated by the death of his friend Nikolai Rubinstein was being played hard here. The understanding between the musicians, beyond their indisputable virtuosity, seemed total. The dialogue between Pablo Ferrández's expansive cello and Yefim Bronfman's piano gave rise to a play of tension and relaxation in the service of the dramatic expression and the underlying emotion of the work. And Anne-Sophie Mutter's violin contributed to the three-part lament (four, if we add the sinuous left hand on the keyboard).

The apparent humor of the variations in the second and third movements didn't make us forget the drama of the previously presented material. And the overall result was an intensity that surpassed all resistance. This was demonstrated by the audience, both those who were committed to it and those who attended out of loyalty to the music. Without a doubt, a good start to the season.